Take the Time to Improve your Business

I've spent the past two days attending the 2007 Trimble Dimensions conference. During the course of the eight classes I attended, and the conversations I had over drinks and meals I came away with a lot of good information and wanted to share some of those insights with you over the next few blog posts. The first major impression that was made occurred during Monday's Keynote Presentation. Daniel Burrus, author of "Technotrends" discussed insights into the present and future opportunities made possible by rapid advances in technology. A lot of what he had to say about future trends and emerging technology was interesting, but the one thing that stood out to me was a practice he - and now I - believe should be applied to your business. That is taking the time as an owner to plan for the future. Burrus challenged the audience to take an hour each week to make a list of the certainties that will affect your business. The issues on the horizon that will become reality and not what may or might happen. This could be employee shortages, rising material prices or anything else you know your business must address. With this list you can begin to plan and prepare to meet and beat these hurdles before they become an immediate deterrence to the growth of your business. An hour is a significant time to take away from your daily routine, but it is something that must be done. Burrus points out we're all busy, but if you take a step back and look, many of the reasons we are busy and have our time filled with dealing with today's problems is that there was a lack of anticipating and planning for the future. We are now treading  water instead of moving towards the goals of your business. So in the words of Burrus "Take the time to plan. Sometimes you need to put down one dollar to pick up five." If this situation seems to be describing your business, take the challenge of planning for your business' future. By identifying the certainties that your business will need to address you will be able to greak free of today's problems and start building for the future.